Katana VentraIP

Royal Horse Guards

The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) (RHG) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry.

This article is about the British military unit. For the Danish unit, see Royal Horse Guards (Denmark).

Royal Horse Guards

1650–1660
1661–1969

 Commonwealth of England (1650–1660)
 Kingdom of England (1660–1707)
 Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800)
 United Kingdom (1801–1969)

 British Army

Cavalry

Exploitation and armoured assault

Divisional

Windsor

"The Oxford Blues"[1]
"The Blue Guards"[1]
"The Blues"[1]

Honi soit qui mal y pense

Quick March: Grand March
Slow March: Regimental Slow March of the Royal Horse Guards

Newfoundland dog

See Battle honours list

Maj Gen Richard Howard-Vyse
The Earl of Oxford
Lt Col Sir Robert Hill
Lt Gen The Marquess of Granby
General The Duke of Marlborough

Raised in August 1650 at Newcastle upon Tyne and County Durham by Sir Arthur Haselrigge on the orders of Oliver Cromwell as a Regiment of Horse, the regiment became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment in 1660 upon the Restoration of King Charles II. As, uniquely, the regiment's coat was blue in colour at the time, it was nicknamed "the Oxford Blues", from which was derived the nickname the "Blues." In 1750 the regiment became the Royal Horse Guards Blue and eventually, in 1877, the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues).


The regiment served in the French Revolutionary Wars and in the Peninsular War. Two squadrons fought, with distinction, in the Household Brigade at the Battle of Waterloo. In 1918, the regiment served as the 3rd Battalion, Guards Machine Gun Regiment. During the Second World War the regiment was part of the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment. The Royal Horse Guards was amalgamated with the Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons) to form the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons) in 1969.

Early Wars: , Flanders Campaigns 1742–43, 1745, Culloden, Dettingen, Fontenoy, Warburg, Emsdorf, Villinghausen, Wilhelmstal, Beaumont, Willems, Peninsula, Waterloo, Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882, Sudan 1884, South Africa 1899–1900: Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg

Battle of Sedgemoor

The Great War: , Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, Messines 1914, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1914 '15 '17, Langemarck 1914, Gheluvelt, Nonne Bosschen, St Julien, Frezenberg, Loos, Arras 1917, Scarpe 1917, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Hindenburg Line, Cambrai 1918, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914–18.

Mons

The Second World War: , Souleuvre, Noireau Crossing, Amiens 1944, Brussels, Neerpelt, Nederrijn, Nijmegen, Lingen, Bentheim, Baghdad 1941, Iraq 1941, Palmyra, Syria 1941, El Alamein, North Africa 1942–43, Arezzo, Advance to Florence, Gothic Line, Italy 1944, North-West Europe 1944-45.

Mont Pinçon

The regiment's battle honours were as follows:[2]

Lt.-Col. William P. de Cerjat: January 1800–May 1803

Lt.-Col. : October 1911–November 1914

Gordon Chesney Wilson

Lt.-Col. David de Crespigny Smiley: December 1951–December 1954

Lt.-Col. Hon. Julian Berry: March 1958–March 1960

Lt.-Col. David J. St. M. Tabor: March 1960–June 1962

Lt.-Col. Harry S. Hopkinson: June 1962–December 1964

Lt.-Col. : December 1964–May 1967

Roy M. F. Redgrave

Lt.-Col. Mark A. Q. Darley: May 1967–March 1969

The Commanding Officers have been:[125]

1831–1837: [126]

King William IV

1880–1910: [127]

King Edward VII

1910–1936:

King George V

1936:

King Edward VIII

1936–1952:

King George VI

1952–1969:

Queen Elizabeth II

The regiment's Colonels-in-Chief were as follows:[2]

1650–1661: Sir Bt (from Haselrig's Regiment Regiment of Cuirassiers)

Arthur Haselrig

1661–1688: The Rt Hon. KG PC (from de Vere's or Earl of Oxford's Regiment)

The Earl of Oxford

1688–1688: Field Marshal His Grace (from FitzJames's or Duke of Berwick's Regiment)

The Duke of Berwick

1688–1688: Lieutenant General His Grace KG KT (from Duke of Hamilton's Regiment)

Duke of Hamilton & Brandon

1688–1703: The Rt Hon. KG PC (from de Vere's or Earl of Oxford's Regiment)

The Earl of Oxford

1703–1712: Lieutenant General His Grace KG PC (from FitzRoy's or Duke of Northumberland's Regiment)

The Duke of Northumberland

1712–1712: General The Rt Hon. PC (from Savage's or Earl Rivers' Regiment)

The Earl Rivers

1712–1715: The Rt Hon. (Mordaunt's or Earl of Peterborough's Regiment)

The Earl of Peterborough & Monmouth

1715–1717: Field Marshal His Grace KG KT (from Campbell's or Duke of Argyll's Regiment)

The Duke of Argyll

1717–1735: Lieutenant General His Grace KG PC (from Powlett's or Marquis of Winchester's Regiment)

The Duke of Bolton

1735–1740: Field Marshal His Grace KG KT (from Campbell's or Duke of Argyll's Regiment)

The Duke of Argyll

1740–1742: General His Grace (from Seymour's or Earl of Hertford's Regiment)

The Duke of Somerset

1742: Field Marshal His Grace KG KT (from Campbell's or Duke of Argyll's Regiment)

The Duke of Argyll

1742–1750: General His Grace (from Seymour's or Earl of Hertford's or Duke of Somerset's Regiment)

The Duke of Somerset

The regiment's colonels were as follows:[2]


On 1 July 1751 a royal warrant provided that in future regiments would not be known by their colonels' names, but by their "number or rank".


In 1969 the regiment amalgamated with the 1st The Royal Dragoons to form the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons).

Horse Guards Regiment

Blues and Royals

Governor General's Horse Guards

British cavalry during the First World War

British Army

Arthur, Sir George (1909). The Story of the Household Cavalry, vols 1 and 2 (1660–1902). Constable and Co.

Arthur, Sir George (1926). . Vol. 3. William Heineman.

The Story Household Cavalry (1914–1918)

Atkinson, C T (1921). . New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Marlborough and the Rise of the British Army

Cooper, Leo (1973). British Regular Cavalry 1644–1914. Northampton: Mercury Press.

De Chair, Somerset (1944). The Golden Carpet. Faber & Faber.

Fortescue, John William (1910). A History of the British Army. Vol. 20 vols. London.{{}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

cite book

Gresswell, Albert (2009). Diseases & disorders of the horse: a treatise on equine medicine and surgery, being a contribution to the science of comparative pathology. Cornell University Press.  978-1429771214.

ISBN

Harwood, Brian. Chivalry and Command: 500 Years of Horse Guards. General Military Books.

Hills, Richard J T (1970). A Short History of The Royal Horse Guards. Leo Cooper.

Hills, Reginald John Taylor (1970). Royal Horse Guards (The Blues). Barnsley: Leo Cooper.  0850520274.

ISBN

Houlding, J A (1981). Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army 1713–1795. Oxford.{{}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

cite book

Kochanski, Halik (1999). Sir Garnet Wolseley: A Victorian Hero. Hambledon Continuum.  1852851880.

ISBN

Lloyd, Nick (2013). Hundred Days. London: Macmillan.

(2006). Iraq 1941: The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad. Campaign. Oxford, New York: Osprey Publishing. p. 96. ISBN 1-84176-991-6.

Lyman, Robert

McElwee, W.L. (1974). The art of war : Waterloo to Mons. London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson.  0-297-76865-4.

ISBN

Mead, Richard (2012). Cavalry General: The Life of General Sir Richard McCreery. Pen & Sword.  9781848844650.

ISBN

Orde, Roden (1953). The Household Cavalry at War: Second Household Cavalry Regiment. Aldershot: Gale and Polden.

Orr, Michael (1972). On Dettingen 1743. London.{{}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

cite book

Packe, Edmund (1847). .

A Historical Record of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards or Oxford Blues

Reid, Walter (2011). Douglas Haig: Architect of Victory 1918. London.{{}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

cite book

Sheffield, Dr Gary; Bourne, John (2008). Diaries and Letters of General Douglas Haig. London: Macmillan.

(1906). Fontenoy and Great Britain's share in the War of the Austrian Succession 1741 –1748. Edinburgh: William Blackwood.

Skrine, Francis

Summers, Captain J.D. Nine Weeks in the Desert.

Warner, J N P (1993). The Story of the Blues and Royals. Barnsley: Leo Cooper Pen and Sword Books.

White-Spunner, Barney (2006). Horse Guards. London: Macmillan.  978-1405055741.

ISBN

Household Cavalry on British Army website

page on the National Army Museum website

Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)

Regiments - The Household Division - Official site

Royal Regiment of Horse Guards on britishempire.co.uk

Household Cavalry Information: The Royal Horse Guards, 1650-1821

Medals of the Regiments: Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)

Regimental History - Household Cavalry

British Light Infantry Regiments & National Service page on Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)

Antique prints of the Horse Guards